Red sun is result of wildfire smoke, not evidence of another planet

The sun is reddened by wildfire smoke from the Airport Fire on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in El Cariso, an unincorporated community in Riverside County, Calif. The appearance of a red sun in the sky over the past week had many people on social media speculating about what they were seeing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP - Eric Thayer

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In late May and early June, many people in the central and southeastern United States saw a bright red sun in the sky. Some online posts claimed the sun was actually the planet Mars or a supposed planet called Nibiru. These claims are false. The red sun is the result of wildfire smoke and is unrelated to other planets — including the fictional planet Nibiru, which has no credible evidence supporting its existence. 

THE CLAIM

"A mysterious massive red celestial object is leaving Florida residents confused …" reads a , formerly Twitter, with 44,000 likes. 

In a video accompanying the post, a woman films the sun, which appears bright red and orange against a hazy sky. 

"That can't be the sun," the woman remarks. 

"That's a planet," a child says. 

Commenters underneath the post shared similar videos and photos from across the central and southeastern United States where the sun appears bright red or orange. Multiple commenters claimed the red orb was actually Mars; , X's generative artificial intelligence chatbot that analyzed the video. 

On TikTok, some video creators people were actually "Nibiru," a supposed planet involved in conspiracy theories related to the end of the world. 

Claims about Nibiru appeared under multiple videos, including one apparently taken in Georgia, which two overlapping suns. 

RATING: False 

The sun's red and orange appearance against hazy skies has a simple explanation. 

Smoke from wildfires battering the Prairie provinces, British Columbia and the has made its way down south, causing the weather phenomena many people observed over the weekend.  

Natalie Hasell, warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the sun's reddish appearance has to do with how light is scattered in the atmosphere. 

There's , when sunlight travelling through the atmosphere scatters light off particles that are smaller than the wavelengths on the visible spectrum of light. 

With Rayleigh scattering, sunlight scatters shorter wavelength blue and violet light more effectively than reds and oranges. That's why the sky appears blue and the sun yellow. 

At sunset, the sun appears more red because light has to travel farther through the atmosphere and scatters shorter wavelengths more effectively than longer wavelengths, giving the sun and sky a red or orange appearance. 

The effect of Rayleigh scattering is stronger in smoky conditions because there are more particles in the atmosphere, Hasell said. 

The other type of scattering that affects the sun's colour when there's wildfire smoke is called Mie scattering. 

"We're talking about the light interacting with particles that are similar in size to the wavelength of light. So smoke particles, dust, aerosols fall into this category," Hasell said.

"Having a red sun in the sky during a smoke event makes perfect sense."

When light encounters the larger smoke particles, it scatters all wavelengths equally, leading to a white or grey appearance in the sky. 

"If what’s left of the sun’s rays are oranges and reds, Mie scattering will make the sky orange or red," Hasell said. 

The sun people saw over the weekend wasn't Mars, and it wasn't "Nibiru," a planet associated with conspiracy theories about the end of the world.

The ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) debunking the Nibiru theory. 

"There is no credible evidence … for the existence of Nibiru," NASA astronomer David Morrison said. 

"There are no pictures, there's no tracking, there's no astronomical observations … we can't see it, we can't detect its gravity and we don't see a signature of its previous passages, because there weren't any," he said. 

Although research from astronomers at California Institute of Technology from 2016 found evidence of a hypothetical planet in the outer solar system, dubbed planet X, it has no relation to the Nibiru conspiracy and NASA . There is no scientific evidence supporting the existence of Nibiru.

Finally, there is an explanation for the double sun observed by one TikTok user.

It's essentially a mirage, created when light passes through air at different densities, Hasell said. 

"The light travels through the various layers of air. It encounters that very hot layer at the surface and then bands back up. So the mirage that you're seeing is actually light from the sky," she said. 

Besides the optical effects the wildfire smoke brings, Hasell said people can expect potential road closures, power outages and health impacts as Canada's wildfire season continues. 

SOURCES

Claims posted to June 1, 2025 (, ), June 1, 2025 (), TikTok posts from (), (), ()

Wildfire-hit areas in Manitoba, Saskatchewan not expected to get much rain. ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥website. June 4, 2025 ()

Brieanna Charlebois. Status of Alaska Highway could change quickly due to wildfire near Fort Nelson, B.C. ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥website. June 4, 2025 ()

Eric Bowling. Firefighters work to contain 12,404 hectare Tulip Lake fire. NNSL . June 3, 2025 ()

Natalie Hasell, warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada. Interviewed June 3, 2025 

Interactions with the Atmosphere. Natural Resources Canada via Government of Canada . Accessed June 3, 2025 ()

The Truth About Nibiru. Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (@NasaLunar), via . Oct. 21, 2011 ()

Is Planet X Real? NASA . Accessed June 3, 2025 ()

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